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Festival sponsors show their support for the island

The Boca Grande Fall Festival may be looked at as a weekend event to bolster scholarship funding and having a good time, but it’s actually more than that. According to several of the primary sponsors of the Boca Grande Fall Festival, it’s about a community working together to create more opportunities for one another.

Mosaic, Gasparilla Properties, Hudson’s Grocery, Comcast and Grande Aire are the elite sponsors that have come together to create financial backing for the three-day festival, and the Gasparilla Inn and Club has offered their assistance in many ways as well, and their open house on Wednesday, Oct. 21 correlates with the festival.

Contributing sponsors are Key Agency, Quality Self Storage, Caddy Carts, Jackson Optical, Thoroughbred Golf Carts, McHugh-Porter Builders Inc. and Englewood Community Hospital.

It takes a lot of organization to put together a three-day event like the Boca Grande Fall Festival, but Lynda Lancaster, the executive director of the Boca Grande Chamber of Commerce, said it wouldn’t have been possible without the sponsorship of several local businesses.

“All of these companies and other local businesses have been extraordinary in the help they’ve given us to make this a really great time,” she said. “The economic opportunities for local businesses, the tremendous benefit this festival will provide for the scholarship fund, and the chance to just have a really great time for everyone on the island, all of these things are greatly appreciated.”

Mosaic’s manager of communications, Kaley Miller, said that when they were told about the idea for the Fall Festival, they were more than happy to take on the sponsorship of the street fair. The company, which creates fertilizer from phosphate, has been doing community service work throughout a five-county area for years.

“When Ritchey Edwards approached us about it, we thought it would be a good tie-on because the phosphate industry has such a long history in Boca Grande,” she said. “While we don’t have operations in Charlotte and Lee counties, we’re a partner in the nearby communities as well. We try to be a good neighbor, not just where we operate but in the surrounding communities as well. We’re more focused when it comes to west county area of Charlotte and Lee counties, and it’s a good opportunity to show support for Boca Grande. It’s such a quaint little town, and I know we’re all going to have a great time.”

Bob Melvin, co-owner of Gasparilla Properties, said that he is looking forward to the weekend’s events, not just to have a good time but to witness one of his favorite things about the island – the community all coming together.

“Through the years Gasparilla Properties has always been known to give back to the community in a big way, and we’re more than happy to continue to do so,” he said. “We realize how good the people of the island have been to us, and as soon as we heard about the Fall Festival we realized it was something we wanted to be involved in. We didn’t hesitate for a moment.

He continued, “It’s something that benefits the entire island, and we’re especially proud to contribute to the annual scholarship fund. After all, who doesn’t realize the importance of coming together to support such an important program? Not only that, it’s very important for all island businesses to work together in an effort to make this a year-round economy out here. Anything that any of us in the business community can do to make that work is in the best interest of the island as a whole.”

Bobby Miller, owner of Grande Aire Inc., said he and his employees try to seize any opportunity to help out within the community. He is co-sponsoring the Gasparilla Properties – Grande Aire Services Boca Grande Golf Scramble with Melvin.

“We were talking to the chamber and found the best way to get involved,” he said. “We try to sponsor a lot of events that go on out here, and try to bring things to the community that are worthwhile. We’re also looking forward to the tournament, we have some employees that have formed a foursome to play. We’ve been out here since 1992, working with the island.”

Emily Wise, owner of Hudson’s Grocery, said they are very excited to be one of the sponsors for the fireworks, set to go off at sunset on Saturday night.

“We’re going to have a great fireworks show!” she said. “With the street festival already in play, we were asking what we could do to make this a really great time. It’s always such a fun weekend with the golf tournament, we’ve played in that for three years, I think. Lynda’s doing a great job getting everyone involved in this, and we really love to be involved in the island’s events.”

Jamie Hammond, public relations coordinator for Comcast, said they have been involved in at least one community event a week around the area, and for the festival have donated not only money for the fireworks, but have also donated more than 1,000 public service announcement slots on television to promote the festival.

“We were contacted by Lynda when she asked about running the commercials for the festival,” Hammond said. “We do ‘in-kind’ agreements in situations like this. To make ourselves available to the island, we’ll also have a tent set up near the main intersection.”